Harry S Truman on Immigration

FactCheck: 3.4M "voluntarily" deported but not to make jobs

A heavily-circulated email states:

"What did Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower have in common? Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens; Truman deported over two million Illegals after
WWII to create jobs for returning veterans; then Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican Nationals!"

Is it true? This distortion of history but has picked up momentum as the immigration debate has heated up again.
This e-mail's message is bogus for all three presidents. Details:

Truman did not try to "create jobs for returning veterans" by ordering deportations. In fact, he signed legislation protecting the rights of Mexican migrant laborers recruited legally to
help harvest US crops, and was unable to win congressional approval of measures to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants. During his nearly eight years in office, about 3.4 million were deported or left "voluntarily" under threat of deportation.

Everyone suffers from the presence of illegal immigrants

Truman struggled with the problem of migrant farm workers--both legal and illegal. In 1950, he set up a Presidential Commission on Migratory Labor and asked it to look into "the extent of illegal migration of foreign workers into the US." The commission
recommended relying primarily on domestic farm workers, not immigrants, to perform farm labor. In 1951, Truman approved legislation for legal migrants to harvest US crops, but also expressed a desire to reduce illegal immigration from Mexico and said
additional measures were needed. "These people are coming to our country in phenomenal numbers--and at an increasing rate," Truman said. "Everyone suffers from the presence of these illegal immigrants in the community."

But the legislation
Truman signed had to do with keeping legal guest workers flowing across the border to harvest US crops. He said the bill he signed didn't go far enough. He wanted stricter sanctions against employers who harbor illegal aliens, but Congress refused.